September 2017 Business Report

11/7/17

I’m pulling the curtain back on my small business!

In February 2017, I decided to start sharing my monthly business reports. In these reports, I discuss the month’s positives and negatives as well as progress I made towards my 2017 goals. I also give a snapshot of my earnings.

My maternity leave ended on September 15th and I returned to work on a part-time basis. I plan on working part-time for the next few years while I focus on raising my children.

Here’s what happened in September.

Positives

Hired for project work

I was hired to complete a fairly large project (10 hours) for a client in September. I was able to do it over three days. My earnings from this project helped cover some of the losses from my maternity leave. I was also recommended for a twice-yearly project that happens in October and January and I got the gig.

Negatives

Losing clients

As I mentioned in my August Business Report, I wasn’t sure if two clients would have work for me when I returned from maternity leave. Both clients ended up not needing my services anymore. This was disappointing, but not unexpected. I knew there was a risk

of losing clients when I decided to take a full 10 weeks of maternity leave, but I don’t regret that decision because the time with my son was priceless.

Lack of time and motivation

Trying to run a business while taking care of two children has been extremely challenging! I will admit that I expected things to be easier than they’ve been so far. I’m breastfeeding so my son is attached to me for hours at a time. He’s been dealing with acid reflux and colic since he was born and is a clingier, less content baby than my daughter was.

This was also the first full month of preschool for my daughter. I’ve found that getting her to school takes up the entire morning Monday through Thursday. I also volunteered to be a room mom so that adds another time commitment to my plate. Finally, my hormones are still out of whack and I can’t seem to stay motivated. I hope that the brain fog clears up in the next few months, but I’m taking it easy on myself and lowering my expectations for now.

Progress towards business goals

1) Increase my yearly income by $10,000

I don’t want to say this goal is impossible for this year, but it will be difficult. I have a lot of ground to make up from my lost clients before I will be at the “increasing income” level. Right now I’m trying to get back to where I was in January.

2) Get another local client

I began looking for another local client this month. I plan to email some leads next month.

3) Launch The Sturm Agency website

I’m still not sure what I want to do with this so it’s on hold for now.

4) Launch my freelancer idea

I have not made any progress on this goal yet.

5) Sponsor something in the community

This goal is on hold until 2018.

6) Finish Elite Blog Academy course

My goal is to finish the EBA course by the end of the year. I’m making progress, but moving very slowly.

Income Snapshot

This income comes from my freelance work which is a mixture of social media management, virtual assistant work, one-off projects, and content writing. This does not include any income made from my blog.

I may eventually share the actual numbers associated with my income, but for now I’m not comfortable doing that. I will be sharing this income snapshot to show a trend of my income throughout the year.

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hey there, I'm Erin!

Since leaving my corporate job in 2014 I’ve built a part-time business specializing in content creation, social media marketing, and virtual assistant services. I did all this while working from home and being the primary caretaker of my three-year-old daughter and newborn son. More About Erin...